For fast and efficient service in a tavern bar, the bartender must have easy access to such equipment as glass washers, rinse tanks, drain boards, ice bins, etc., and to bottles of liquor and other beverages that are to be dispensed across the bar. All of these items should be accessible to the bartender as he faces towards the customer's side of the bar. To that end, the fixed equipment is installed under the bar and a bottle trough for supporting a row of bottles is installed just in front of the fixed equipment, that is, at the bartender's side of it.
Because alcoholic beverages have a high value in relation to volume, the owner of a tavern must be as much concerned to prevent pilfering of liquor and the like as to arrange the stock for the bartender's convenience. The bottle trough is located and arranged to achieve both of these objectives. It is at such an elevation above the floor--a little above knee level--that the bartender can reach down and remove a bottle from it without stooping or bending and can easily reach across bottles in it to the fixed equipment behind it; but at the same time bottles in the bottle trough are practically inaccessible from the customer's side of the bar, so that pilfering from the bottle trough is not likely to occur when the bartender is present.
Heretofore, however, there has been no satisfactory protection for bottles in a bottle trough at times when the bar is not in operation.
In many establishments all bottles have been removed from the bottle trough at the end of the business day and transferred to a cabinet that could be locked. Of course the bottles had to be transferred back to the bottle trough when operations were to be resumed. Obviously such transfer and retransfer was time consuming, and it also presented the possibility that a bottle might be dropped and broken.
As another security measure the bottle trough was sometimes so arranged that a pair of rods could be fastened to it that extended along the row of bottles in the trough, close to their necks, to captivate them in the trough. Although the rods could be installed and removed easily enough, they left the tops of the bottles exposed, so that it was not difficult to siphon out their contents.
A frequently used security device was a hood-like or box-like cover that was carried to the bottle trough, set in place over it and locked to it. Because this cover concealed the bottles and blocked access to them it was satisfactory from the security standpoint, but it was large and bulky so that carrying it to and from the bottle trough and installing and removing it were difficult and awkward. A very important disadvantage was that it had to be stored somewhere away from the bottle trough during business hours, and, because of its bulk, a completely suitable and convenient storage place for it was seldom available.
Because covers and closures are such common devices, one might assume that it would be easy enough to provide a door-like or hood-like hinged and lockable closure for a bottle trough, but as demonstrated by the unsatisfactory character of the security devices heretofore employed, there has been no obvious completely satisfactory solution to the problem. A bottle trough closure cannot be arranged to swing to an open position in which it is in front of the bottle trough, to either end of it or above it. In front of the bottle trough it will be in the bartender's way as he reaches for a bottle or otherwise moves about in the performance of his work; at either end of the bottle trough it is likely to be in the bartender's way as he moves along the bar; and above the bottle trough it would block access to the drain board, ice chest and other equipment under the bar. Whatever its nature, the security device must be made entirely of material that is impervious to water and to alcoholic and carbonated beverages, and with respect to both its form and the material of which it is made it must be capable of being quickly, easily and thoroughly cleaned.